DBP37: AUGER;ZENITH

AUGER;ZENITH is a Doom II megawad for limit removing ports by various authors from the Doomer Boards community, led by SuperCupcakeTactics, and is the thirty-seventh installment of the ongoing Doomer Boards Projects series. It contains twenty-two new single player levels, as well as a total texture conversion which replaces most of the in-game textures (and some SFX) with custom ones designed to create a heavy aesthetic. However, the appearance and behavior of monsters is generally identical to vanilla Doom II. Despite being limit removing, the WAD includes several optional features for advanced source ports such as GLDEFS and a MAPINFO lump.

The megawad was released on both the Doomer Boards and the Doomworld forums on July 4th, 2021. The release threads were updated on July 6th with three optional add-ons and subsequent release candidates were released on July 15th and July 18th, with the final one uploaded to idgames archive on July 26th, 2021. It was named as one of the runners up at the 2021 Cacowards.

Plot
--- Neo Shotkon City 2198 A.D. ---

In the recesses of cyberspace, a maelstrom of evil blood infected the pneumatic tubes of global biocomputing. The dark consciousness recruited every semblance of artificial intelligence lost within seas of metadata, each spanning across decades of technological and societal struggle since the 21st century. Each node resonating with ethereal desires, conduits of unknowing interaction between beings of differing worlds. This technology opened the door to monsters familiar only to itself: Demonic natures attracting one another, wishing for a new home, yearning for their own creators. The Motherboard is lonely no more.

Levels

 * by SuperCupcakeTactics
 * by Jon Vail (40oz)
 * by matador
 * by Ilya Lazarev (joe-ilya)
 * by SuperCupcakeTactics and Redead-ITA
 * by Lunch Lunch
 * by Fryuko
 * by Michael Jan Krizik (valkiriforce)
 * by Washing Machine Enthusiasts
 * by Chris Moyer
 * by JadingTsunami
 * by 40oz
 * by Lunch Lunch
 * by JadingTsunami
 * by SuperCupcakeTactics
 * by Peerdolius
 * by SuperCupcakeTactics
 * by Fryuko
 * by 40oz
 * by 40oz
 * by SuperCupcakeTactics
 * by SuperCupcakeTactics and JadingTsunami (epilogue map)

Soundtrack

 * MAP01: MIDI rendition of "One Night in Neo Kobe City" from  (3:09)
 * MAP02: MIDI rendition of "Resonance" by Randy Goffe (HOME), sequenced by Astolfo Alter (3:07)
 * MAP03: MIDI rendition of "Stardust Speedway 'G' Mix, JP ver. (Good Future) [House Mix]" from  (2:49)
 * MAP04: MIDI rendition of "Gene Gadget Zone: Act 1" from  (3:19)
 * MAP05: MIDI rendition of "Fighting in the Street" from  - Stage 1 (4:40)
 * MAP06: "Crystalline" by Psyrus (2:51)
 * MAP07: MIDI rendition of "Whirlwind" from  (2:15)
 * MAP08: MIDI rendition of "Parking Block" from  - Stage 4, sequenced by Robert Hansson (3:19)
 * MAP09: MIDI rendition of "CORE" from  by (2:45)
 * MAP10: MIDI rendition of  theme (3:15)
 * MAP11: MIDI rendition of "Under Logic" from  - Stage 4-1 (2:04)


 * MAP12: "Demons On The Prey" by Bobby Prince (2:30)
 * MAP13: MIDI rendition of "Floating Museum" from  (4:42)
 * MAP14: MIDI rendition of "Dreamer" from Streets of Rage 2 - Stage 3-1 (2:15)
 * MAP15: MIDI rendition of "Rave On" from  (4:26)
 * MAP16: MIDI rendition of "Max Man" from Streets of Rage 2 - Stage 8, sequenced by José Felix (3:48)
 * MAP17: "Cybernetic" by Psyrus (3:18)
 * MAP18: MIDI rendition of "Moon Beach" from Streets of Rage - Stage 3, sequenced by Darkmind (4:53)
 * MAP19: MIDI rendition of "Electric Toothbrush" from  (4:13)
 * MAP20: MIDI rendition of "Go Straight!" from Streets of Rage 2 - Stage 1-1 (3:00)


 * MAP21: MIDI rendition of "Final Boss" from Ninja Warriors (3:15)
 * MAP22: MIDI rendition of "Twilight of Neo Kobe City" from Snatcher (4:26)


 * Title screen: MIDI rendition of "End of the Dark" from  (2:09)
 * Intermission screen: MIDI rendition of "Image of a Hero" from  (3:04)
 * Text screen: MIDI rendition of "Innocent Girl" from Snatcher (1:31)
 * "Victory" Music: MIDI rendition of "No Way!" from  (0:41)

Built-in demos
This WAD features three built-in demos. All require Doom II v1.9 to view them. The demo levels are:

Optional add-ons
The following optional add-ons were bundled together and added to the original posts on the Doomer Boards and Doomworld release threads on July 6th, 2021.
 * DBP37_AlternateBlaster adds a new sound effect for the pistol, alters the chaingun muzzle flare, and makes zombiemen's muzzle flashes red. This was created by 40oz and posted in the project's development thread on June 21st.
 * DBP37_DeckardBlaster is the same as the previous add-on, except that it replaces the pistol sound with a high-quality sound bite of Deckard's blaster from .
 * DBP37_EDGEBreakingGlass was created by Lobo and allows the breaking glass effect to work on the EDGE sourceport. It was uploaded to both release threads on July 4th.

Development history
The project's genesis dates back, at latest, to November 2020, when 40oz mentioned in a forum post that he had the groundwork laid out for a potential nighttime city theme. Another forum post in December revealed that 40oz's nighttime city textures were part of a cyberpunk theme being put together with SuperCupcakeTactics. After a brief hiatus from the Doomer Boards, SuperCupcakeTactics would return to the forum during the development of DBP34: Luminous Gloom and the cyberpunk DBP would be scheduled to launch a few months later, with the development thread being created on June 1st, 2021. The resource pack for the project came bundled with a work-in-progress version of the first map, a demo map showcasing the breaking glass effect (created with the help of Joe-ilya) and a GLDEFS lump created by matador. In a follow up post, SuperCupcakeTactics also uploaded a set of prefabs containing furniture he used in his map and some cityscape prefabs developed by Redead-ITA for mappers to use in their own maps.

Development moved at an unusually quick pace, with three maps (maps 2, 7 and 13) being completed before the end of the first week of development, leading Joe-ilya to opine that the project could, "reach 15 maps by the end of the month if this pace is kept up". The first and most significant of several resource pack updates occurred on June 12th and saw the addition of several new ads designed by SuperCupcakeTactics as well as neon signage designed by 40oz and Princess Prozac. On June 29th, SuperCupcakeTactics announced that he would be extending the deadline for the project by two days, with the project's final release being scheduled for July 3rd. On July 1st, development for the next DBP began and remaining development on DBP37 was moved to a separate thread, work being done concurrently on both projects. Due to time constraints, a full-fledged end credits map was not present in the initial release, with Map 22 being released in the second release candidate.

Current records
The DSDA episode records for DBP37: AUGER;ZENITH are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 28, 2022.

Trivia

 * According to SuperCupcakeTactics, the project lead, the WAD's title refers to mankind's unchecked social, technological and cultural progression and subsequent stagnation, with the caution strip in the logo representing the last technological barrier reached by mankind.
 * The two words that make up the title are also a references to the Japanese, where the heroes pilot giant super robots equipped with incredibly powerful, magical drills in their fight for the universe against the malevolent Anti-Spirals. Drills are used prominently throughout the series as symbols of both strength and will as well as the indominable spirit of humanity itself, and during the final fight, after the heroes merge their respective mechas to form a universe-sized super mecha to battle the equally ginormous final form of the antagonist, their gigantic drills collide in a climactic confrontation, ripping a hole into the fabric of the universe itself.
 * As a heavily cyberpunk-themed WAD, AUGER;ZENITH makes multiple direct references to cyberpunk and sci-fi cultural works including ', ', ', ', ', ', ', ',  and several others.
 * The WAD includes numerous references to the cyberpunk graphic adventure game  from 1988, written and designed by : Neo Shotkon City is an obvious nod to Snatcher's setting inside Neo Kobe City; the player's flying car seen at the start and end of many levels is the same vehicle used by Snatcher's protagonist Gillian Seed; the blue cityscape shown in the intermission screen graphic is taken from Snatcher's opening cinematic, while the text screen makes use of the track "Innocent Girl" from the game's soundtrack. In addition to that, MAP01: Glass Messiah uses the opening theme of the release of Snatcher from 1992, "One Night in Neo Kobe City", as its soundtrack, while the final level, MAP22: Twilight of Neo Shotkon City, plays the track "Twilight of Neo Kobe City", which is the opening theme of the original release of Snatcher from 1988 for the  and  home computer systems.
 * While the WAD references Hideo Kojima's body of work at several key places (besides the allusions to Snatcher mentioned above, the music playing over the title screen is a MIDI rendition of the opening theme from the game ', written and directed by Kojima, and released in 1994), no overt references to the ' franchise, for which Kojima is most well-known, are included. However, MAP10: Photon Geyser uses a MIDI rendition of the main theme from the 1981 movie , featuring  as, who served as one of the main inspirations for , the central character of the Metal Gear series, with the beginning of the map also very much modeled after the dystopian version of New York City depicted in the film.
 * At the very start of MAP01: Glass Messiah, a sound quote from the beginning of the movie  is played, consisting of the ad for the "off-world colonies". A further reference to the movie is found in the recreation of the iconic Tyrell Corperation building that is clearly visible in the background from the window the player looks out of at the start of the level.
 * When pressing the use key during the intermission screen, as well as at certain moments inside some of the maps, a short musical excerpt from the symphonic fairy tale ' by Russian composer is played, consisting of the first six notes of the theme representing Peter. This sound bite is taken from, and an allusion to, the movie ', where it is used as a sort of brand tune, representing the Wallace Corporation's line of holographic products, and by extension, its CEO Niander Wallace, the main antagonist of the story, suggesting a link to the noble hero Peter from the fairy tale, who tames nature's cruelty through cunning and courage; the irony being that the character of Wallace in the film very much symbolizes the.
 * While descending the elevator towards the end of MAP01: Glass Messiah, a poster showing 's character "K" from the movie ' is revealed, a visual hint that cues the first appearance of the ' sound bite shortly afterwards.
 * All of the foreign text textures translate to "Love and Peace" in their respective languages.
 * Changes to the monster sprites were proposed twice during development, with Joe-ilya suggesting the use of sprites from Kick Attack! and 40oz suggesting a recolor of the chaingunner's shirt, though neither idea would wind up being used.
 * The various anime ads that are used throughout the WAD as decoration originate from several cyberpunk-themed video games for the Japanese-exclusive by  and were pulled from a compilation of art assets SuperCupcakeTactics found online.